The New Friend

Afterwards, Edie thought back to the numerous times she had bumped into Nina, and wondered how many of them had been accidental. Suddenly, Nina just happened to be everywhere: in the supermarket, the car park, or the gym, always with something nice to say – ‘Gosh, I love your hair!’ (Edie had never met anyone who used the word gosh without irony before). She found herself subconsciously looking out for her, and oddly pleased when she arrived. The first time Nina had asked her to coffee, they had both giggled nervously. The slightly English embarrassment of it, rather like a first date.

Come to think of it, coffee was how all her relationships had started – shared laughter, shared confidences, shared visits, shared fun. They had also ended in shared misery. …